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Inspired by the Reading Countess’s post here, I decided to change my lesson plans at the last minute this morning. It’s been one of those weeks and the 100 Books for 100 Days seemed like exactly what my class and I needed. And you know what? It worked!

I began each class by having the students open their binder to their mini-lesson section and labeling a sheet of paper “My Most Important Books”. Each student was charged with listing 20 books that impacted their life- it could be a favorite book, a book that they read to their younger siblings, or a book they shared with Mom and Dad. Books could be picture books or chapter books. The only requirement was that the books be meaningful to them. I share my own list, and then set them free. Let me tell you, they set to work like little worker bees! It was quieter than normal and it was amazing to look out at the students scratching away at the paper in front of them. A few students in each class would approach me with, “I remember this book where……..But I can’t remember the name of it!” If I did not know the title off the top of my head I would google it for them.

After each student listed their 20 books, I placed the students into random groups and handed each group a blank sheet of paper. I then informed them that they would have ten minutes to combine all their lists into a single list of 20 titles their group could agree on. I listened in as students debated books, became excited over shared favorites, and laughed as students cried out, “Whoa! I totally forgot about that book! I loved that one in third grade!” It was a fantastic class.

At the end of the twenty minute period, I collected each list. I read the books to the entire class and then asked them to put their heads down on their desk. At that point, I read each title and the students raised their hand if they felt it should go on our class list of Top 25 books. (4 periods x 25 books each= 100 books). The first half of the list was always easy, but the second half of the list always resulted in students debating books and championing their favorites.

At the end of the day, I tallied all the lists, deleted duplicates, and added the books that just missed the list in each class, to reach 100. Without further ado, here are the Top 100 Books for our team (in no particular order)!